


A Tall Tail

by Nightwood



Category: Nightwood
Genre: M/M, Mermaids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-03-04 03:45:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2908148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightwood/pseuds/Nightwood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fisherman finds something strange in a net and does everything he can to protect it from the greedy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

'Tis a simple existence, the life of a fisherman.  
  
Daniel's daily routine was the same every week, his whole schedule based around the ebb and flow of the tide and the migrations of the local marine life. He loved it; every second of it. He loved the feel of the friendly sun's warm tendrils whenever they reached down to him at midday and curiously explored the sun-screen layer covering his lightly browned face and arms. He loved the perfect grip of his calloused fingers as they manipulated his nets. Never did they have to pause to give his eyes a chance to catch up to the experienced movements of his hands. He loved the symbiosis, the give-and-take relationship between him and the sea as he took what he needed to sell and gave over his whole heart and soul to the task of living and protecting the source of his livelihood. He was a citizen of the sea and dedicated to his people. Even as he killed each fish to feed his stomach, he issued a murmured token of thanks and a promise to not let any ounce of his maritime brothers' sacrifices go to waste.  
  
It was during a peaceful moment of rowing one day that Daniel's daily routine encountered a hiccup. Only a slight delay, he assumed, for a slight problem. For you see, his boat had brushed up against a net... in the "No Fishing" zone. Not a problem, he could simply hoist the offending object up onto his boat and report it to the coast guard's office when he got home. But when he reached down into the salty water and curled his fingers through the twine, a heavy weight on the net held it in the water. He pulled and yanked at the net some more to try to figure out what was so tangled under the layers, turning it over a couple of times until he caught a glimpse of red.  
  
With a huff he sat back, frowning down at the glimmering color in the water as he thought over what to do next. He /could/ just leave. This net was already costing him precious fishing time. But simply reporting all of this to Coast Guard without having investigated himself would seem rather anti-climactic. He brought his fingers to the wrist of his other hand and pulled off the rubber band hair tie, pulling up his long ebony hair into a messy bun- a sign that he was /really/ getting ready for some serious work. *Snick* He snapped open his pocket knife and grabbed at the net again, sawing through layers of twine towards the alluring red glimmer below. It was a large fish of some sort. Its scales were quite beautiful, bending the sunlight around them so that their color almost seemed to be a moving liquid within, rather than a simple pigment. Daniel reached down and dipped his fingers into the water. As his palm explored the smooth surface of the brilliantly scintillating scales and gently moved over the semi-translucent dorsal fin, the creature twitched. Daniel flinched, having thought the fish to be dead up until now. With this new discovery of life, Daniel returned to his work at a faster pace. He wondered at the uncomfortable position in which this fish rested, for the net had pulled its tail into an extreme U-shape and held it there for god knows how long. He worked from the tail downward towards where the rest of the body floated. By and by, the glistening red scales gave way to smooth skin. Daniel worked with a bemused frown, hardly understanding what he was looking at until a face came into view. "Mother of...!" He had found... a mermaid?  
  
And so the hiccup in his day turned to a full-blown interruption.  
  
The creature's green eyes were half open and resting on Daniel, exhaustion evident in that tired, unfocused gaze. Daniel swallowed roughly, hesitating under that stare before returning to his work on the net. Its back- which the net had stuck into an uncomfortable arch- had a spiny dorsal ridge along the line of his vertebrae. The red ridge was folded down at the moment, but it looked to be about two inches tall when open. Once the tail and torso were free, Daniel moved on to the arms which were trapped in a gnarled position against the creature's toned chest. Daniel hoped it was safe to assume that the flat chest indicated male gender- a mer/man/ rather than a maid. The merman's fingers were connected by thin membranous webs which were tinted red at the edges and then faded to a light tan as they got closer to the hands. Its arms were sinewy but slender, unsurprisingly akin to that of any dedicated human swimmer.  
  
Once finished with the arms, Daniel returned his focus to the head. The eyes- which were still fixed on him- had an Asian-esque almond shape to them. The merman's uncommonly high cheekbones were set at a graceful curve on its angular face and both of its ears had an elf-like point. Its neck had three lines on each side where its gills opened and closed, gently pulling water through them with each repetition.  
  
When Daniel went to begin working on the netting around its neck, its chest began to rise and fall a little faster. Its tail flopped weakly, but the poor thing seemed too tired to do much more than watch and wait. Daniel carefully cut away the last of the net piece by piece, his ebony hair falling out of his ponytail and into his face as he worked. How long had he been out here? He was beginning to get a little tired. He tried to move the merman after finishing with the neck, but its long reddish burgundy hair was tangled in the mess as well. Daniel looked at the merman's frightened eyes and then over at the hair, steeling himself and sawing the burgundy strands in one quick effort. The merman's body made a panicked jolt, its tail lifting slightly out of the water and splashing Daniel's arm. Daniel looked down at what was left of the creature's hair, guilt showing in his face as he took stock of the length he had cut. He knew more than any guy that growing out hair was a pain. It would take this creature a very long time to coax the strands from their new shoulder length state back into the silky waist length mane that it had been.  
  
He'd hoped that the merman would swim away after the net had been cut away. But as soon as Daniel let go of the creature, it began to passively sink into the water. It was too tired to swim. Daniel took the merman's wrist and lifted it towards the surface again. What else could he do? Could he take this thing out of the water instead? He cradled the merman's head in one hand and cautiously lifted its face and neck from the water. Its gills automatically closed and its mouth opened, sucking in the open air with practiced ease.  
  
"It's settled then," Daniel murmured. He was bringing his discovery home.  
  
...  
  
Daniel's little seaside shack was not very pleasing to the eye. In fact, it was something best overlooked if you had any aesthetic temperament at all. Its old faded painted boards and sagging gutters matched with its scratched up windows and crooked doors made his few visitors cast their eyes to the ground so as not to offend their visual receptors. But it was home. Daniel liked the way it overlooked the water on a rickety throne of rocks that jutted up from the sea and led into the rest of the mainland. He liked how the old dock squeaked a greeting to him as he stepped out of the boat and secured its lines to the dock's poles. And he liked how the sand of the tiny little beach next to his dock gave his roughened bare feet a welcoming hug as he lifted the exhausted merman from the vessel and into his arms. By now its tail had gone, replaced by legs as soon as its body dried off. The spinal ridge on its back and the webs between its fingers had also vanished, though the ears and gills saw no change.  
  
Daniel brought the limp merman over the sand and up the wooden stairs to the porch. He opened the door with difficulty and then turned himself sideways, stepping inside with an expression of slight bewilderment. Was this really happening? He felt like he was dreaming.


	2. Chapter 2

All in the house was quiet; serene, in a homely way. The whisper of the ever roiling ocean against land was a constant presence in the house, staving away utter silence like a gentle guard against the threat of a lonely atmosphere. A creak of the kitchen door joined the soft melody, followed by a clattering finale as the door closed against the old frame. Daniel's faded brown flip flops brushed softly against the wrinkled linoleum and then silenced on the carpeted floor of the living room. He entered the bedroom to find his house guest sitting up, bleary-eyed but awake. It was great to see him doing so well after only a week of care but despite the merman's growing energy, he had not moved from the bed. It seemed to Daniel that the man's legs were more or less useless. Sure, the feet moved and the knees worked, but he did not seem to know how to control the muscles any further than to push Daniel away with his feet when the man was becoming a bother.  
  
"Good morning, William," Daniel murmured as he offered him a smile. The merman looked up from the covers, recognizing the name his caretaker had given him and responding to it with a purring titter. Daniel gave a small chuckle, picking up on the happy tone in William's voice and holding up the cooler in his hand. "I brought lunch." Grabby hands reached out towards the container, but Daniel shook his head. "Nuh uh, we don't do meals in bed anymore, do we? Not since Tuesday. Come on now, stand up..."  
  
William protested. Daniel set the cooler down in the kitchen and then returned to the bedroom, attempting to pull the merman out of bed. "You can't keep avoiding this. You need to learn how to walk!" He pulled back the covers and took William by the wrist, but this only made the protests louder. William responded in mertongue terms that Daniel did not understand.  
  
"Prrrowwwww..."  
  
"Get up!"  
  
"tk, tk, Arraaaahh!" William kicked out, catching Daniel in the face with his heel and knocking him back a few steps. The merman gasped in surprise at his own act of accidental violence and he reared back, burrowing under the covers as Daniel regained his footing. A momentary silence passed between them, William hiding under his fluffy blanket fort while Daniel tried to decide what to do next. With a huff of determination he stepped forward and swept up the entire mass, blankets and all.  
  
Surprisingly, William did not complain. He wriggled about in Daniel's hold to get more comfortable, popping his head out into the open air as the man carried him out of the room. "You're a pain in the ass," Daniel murmured with a sigh. Whether William understood him or not was unclear. The burgundy-haired merman lifted his arms and wrapped them around Daniel's neck as a content purr began to rumble through his chest.  
  
Suddenly Daniel stopped in the middle of the living room and let go. The blankets dropped away to expose William's bare body to the humid seaside air, causing the merman to tense up and mewl loudly. His arms remained locked tightly around Daniel's neck, his body curled up against Daniel's torso so that his feet did not even get close to the carpet.  
  
Daniel frowned. "Come on, put your feet on the floor, you stubborn prick."  
  
"MROOOOWWWARRAAAHHHH..."  
  
"You gotta walk sometime! Ah-OUCH!" Daniel's hands lifted to William, his back arching against the unexpected pain. William was biting his neck. The man gritted his teeth and wrapped his arms around the merman, finding that the bite released as soon as William's weight was back to being fully supported in Daniel's arms. "Owww... You bit me!" He let out a growl when he felt William's tongue glide across the wound in a gesture of apology. "Cut it out."  
  
"Da-nuuull!" Daniel froze. Funny, that noise almost sounded like his name. William pressed his face into Daniel's neck and said it again. "Da-null... Da-null..." William's tone was desolate - pleading, even.  
  
"...Daniel? Me?" He felt the merman nod into his neck. Bite momentarily forgotten, he walked the rest of the way to the kitchen and sat William down on the chair by the table. The merman immediately lifted his feet away from the floor and curled into a ball on the chair, his green eyes peering up at Daniel through a messy curtain of burgundy. "So you can talk." He glanced to the puzzled look on the merman's face as he opened the cooler on the table. "You're /learning/ to talk," he revised with a sigh. "I've been picking up on some of your words too, you know." He clicked his tongue and purred, suppressing a smile when William perked up and clicked back.  
  
...  
  
Some Weeks Later:  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"Omnomnomnom..."  
  
"William... Williaaaaaam."  
  
"Nomnomnomnom."  
  
"Dude, you are /literally/ biting the hand that feeds you."  
  
William, having finished his plate of raw cod, was now chewing on Daniel's hand. He was being gentle, but Daniel had other things to do besides act as a merman's chew toy for indefinite amounts of time. "Can I have my hand back please? Geez, it's like you're teething or something."  
  
William halted his work on Daniel's thumb to lift his head and wrinkle his nose at the strange word. He did not let his fingers' grip on Daniel's hand loosen, but he paused in his chewing long enough to speak. "Teef... Teefbf... Teeing?" He stumbled over the "th" sound in the middle of the word before casting it out of the word completely.  
  
Daniel nodded. "Yeah. It's what babies do when their teeth are growing in."  
  
"I have teef."  
  
"Yeah, I know. But technically your mouth is still trying to develop."  
  
"Mm?"  
  
"Saliva, man. Your mouth is always too dry. You keep making me put all those sauces on your food so that it's easier to chew. I think your mouth is too used to having the sea water around you be your spit." William still seemed a little confused by this concept, so Daniel brought his hand up towards his face. William's hands moved with it as they stubbornly held on to his chew toy. Daniel grinned, glancing to William with a mischievous glint in his bi-colored eyes before he opened his mouth and gave William's hand a big slobbery lick.  
  
The merman recoiled with a gasp. "Wet!" he exclaimed with a shudder as he wiped Daniel's spit off onto the couch cushion beneath him.  
  
Daniel was laughing now, clearly unabashed despite the merman's abhorrence. He responded with a mertongue titter of agreement as he took his hand back, but he did not even bother to wipe it off. William's mouth hadn't managed to even slightly slobber on him that whole time. As William began to curiously poke at his own tongue, Daniel reached out and plucked up the hairbrush from where it sat between them on the couch. "Are you done with this? You missed a spot." William clicked his tongue and Daniel purred back, reaching up to brush out the mass of hair that the merman had missed on the top of his head. "There, all done. Hungry?"  
  
William shook his head, pushing his hair out of his face with a grunt and quickly scooting over to Daniel's side of the couch. "Don't stand yet," he requested, plopping his bare butt down onto Daniel's fully clothed lap. For a brief moment, the unusual nature of this scene struck Daniel. He hadn't really put much of an effort into teaching the merman about clothes or social boundaries, so things like this happened a lot. If any one of his human acquaintances were to walk in right now, their eyebrows would raise fast enough to hit the ceiling. But Daniel didn't think much of William's antics. They were friends. It felt right to be close.  
  
Daniel gave a smile, placing his elbow on the arm of the couch and leaning his head into his hand. "Soooo when can I stand?"  
  
William said something in mertongue, but Daniel didn't quite catch the meaning. He held still as his friend reached forward and put his slender fingers in Daniel's hair, pulling at the hair tie until hit came loose. "You wear this," William murmured with a curious frown as he stretched the little object in his hands.  
  
"Eeeyup."  
  
"I want to try."  
  
"Alright, hand it over." Daniel had William move back onto the couch so that he could put the hair tie in the merman's hair. He took his time with it, gathering the burgundy strands into one neat handful and then carefully wrapping the band around the ponytail. He noted a purr rumbling up in William's chest as he finished, though he couldn't imagine why.  
  
The merman's slender fingers whipped up and pulled the hair tie out one quick motion. "Again."  
  
"Er? Okay..." Daniel began the ponytail anew and the purr started up again. He paused, experimentally pulling his hands from William's hair, only to hear the purr die down again. It seemed William liked the feeling of someone playing with his hair. He snapped the rubber band back onto his own wrist and gently finger-combed the burgundy tufts for a few minutes before pulling away and standing from the couch. "I'm going to make breakfast now."  
  
A hand caught at his wrist and prevented him from turning away. William's expression had changed. He looked up at Daniel with somber green eyes, lifting his free hand to point at the faint mark on Daniel's neck. "Sorry," he murmured guiltily.  
  
Daniel arched a brow. "You say that every day. I've already told you: I forgive you, William. Will you let go now? I want to grab some breakfast before I head out to sea."  
  
"I go with you?"  
  
Daniel smiled. "Of course." He held out a hand and helped William stand, allowing the merman to hang onto his arm for support so that the two of them could walk towards the kitchen. "Are you sleeping here tonight or out there?"  
  
"We will see..."


End file.
